Medieval Suite

for Flute and Piano

Katherine Hoover (composer)

Instrumentation

  • Flute
  • Piano
$24.99
SKU
114-40417

Format:

The Medieval Suite was inspired by characters and events described in Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, a history of fourteenth-century France. It was a violent, bitter century of extensive wars, and Ms. Tuchman sees it as something of a reflection of our own. The first movement, Virelai, uses parts of a work in that form by Guillaume de Machaut, a French composer of that era. The Black Knight was a valiant, violent British prince, barred from his beloved fighting by a wasting disease. The fourteenth century was a low point for the Catholic Church with warring Popes in Rome and Avignon, and The Drunken Friar was apparently a common sight. In this movement I have freely adapted and embroidered a Gregorian chant and quoted a well-known round of the time, "Sumer is acumin in". Princess Isabelle describes a daughter of the King of France who was engaged at the age of six, sent to England to live permanently, and wed at twelve - a common fate for royal children. The Demon's Dance was a desperate marathon dance done by some in hopes of avoiding the Black Plague.
SKU: 114-40417
Duration: 19:00
Publisher: Theodore Presser Company
Product Type: Score and Parts
Accompanied: Accompanied Solo
Weight: 0.3 lbs.
UPC: 6-80160-00749-3
ISBN: 978-1-59806-915-0
I. Virelai
II. The Black Knight
III. The Drunken Friar
IV. On the Betrothal of Princess Isabelle of France, Aged Six Years
V. Demon's Dance
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